At times when a storage device is coupled to and running in a host computer system, that is, while the storage media can be considered in an “online” state, it is relatively easy to manage the stored content, such as via directory and search technologies. However, a significant need to control and manage stored content also exists when in an offline state.
For example, as hard drive costs decrease, users are acquiring new hard drives faster than their existing ones are failing or being retired. However limits on drive cabinetry, power, cabling and controllers means that some of the storage devices need to remain in disconnected states until specifically needed. As a result, there is a need to manage the content of such drives when disconnected.
The need to manage content stored on a disconnected storage device is becoming more important with the rapidly expanding technology of hot-pluggable storage devices for computing systems. This was not a significant issue in the past, where many prior consumer drives interfaced via ATA or IDE standards, which required that such drives be connected or removed from the computer system while the whole system is powered down. Thus, most users did not frequently exchange hard drives in their systems, but rather had tape, CD-ROM and DVD-ROM for maintaining large quantities of swappable content. However, contemporary technologies such as USB, 1394 and SCSI, as well as Serial ATA (SATA), have resulted in portable hard drives, in which ordinary computer consumers may have multiple hard drives that are regularly connected, disconnected and transported.
Indeed, many computer users are now using mechanical hard drives as mobile repositories/portable media used among different computer systems devices. There are many scenarios in which it is faster and/or otherwise preferable to physically transport high-capacity media, instead of transmitting the data. By way of example, one emerging PC-based use for hard drives is as a Personal Video Recorder (PVR). With such technology, hard drives likely will be used in a manner that is similar to how videotape cassettes have been in the past, e.g., by moving the hard drives from one computer/television to another as needed.
In sum, the number of useful and important storage devices owned by computers users will continue to expand, meaning some will have to exist in a disconnected state until needed. The power and time required to connect a storage device's communications interfaces and spin up a drive make it difficult to manage multiple storage repositories, including their configuration, hosted content and control events that need to occur upon reconnection to a host system.
What is needed is an improved scalable and flexible way to manage and control mechanical storage devices, including when the device is offline or in a low power configuration.